Mr. Kayden and I are traveling solo to the Albany, NY area this weekend for a weight pull competition. We will be staying overnight in lovely Albany, NY (having some pizza, beer and watching the new Indiana Jone movie in our deluxe $45 motel room ).

Wish us luck!!

As usual I am nervous as hell but the little bastard has been pulling way more than he needs to for his title in practice so hopefully everything will go ok.

Good luck, and have fun. I'm really having pull envy this weekend.A piece of advice that was given to me by Lori Bowling, when I was having trouble w/Xanny being spazzy, was too watch my body language. I did all kinds of flapping and yelling and banging my hands on the carpet in competition that I didn't do in training. Hard to expect my dog to be calm when I was being a lunatic.

Well first day is done and all I can say is what an f'ing nightmare. The day wasn't a total flop but the conditions really sucked.

The pull was held at a tractor supply store out in the parking lot on the side of the building. The weight pull chute had that indoor outdoor carpeting as the surface area but the nap on it was really high. On top of that, it was on a decent incline and it poured all day long so the dogs were slipping quite a bit on the surface.

There were 12 dogs in Kayden's class (60lb weight class). Kayden got 3rd or 4th depending on the time of his last qualifiying pull (I'll find out tomorrow). The class ended with only two dogs (1st and 2nd place) pulling only 720 lbs

Kayden successfully pulled 640 and because he weighed in at 51lbs and pulled the 12 times his body weight that he needed I pulled him for the day. He was soaked and his eyes were starting to close waiting for his turn but he really gritted it out for me. Just to give you an idea, the dogs that got 1st and 2nd generally pull 1400 lbs without blinking an eye. The 80 lb class also ended in the 700s.

I was crapping my pants after seeing him really start to have to work at 300 lbs. I thought for sure there was no way he would double that weight but he did really well today and worked for me out in that mess.

We are at the hotel now and what a dump. All I can smell is stale cigarettes and there was a fight outside with some homeless guys over bottles in the recycle bin. Thank god I have Kayden with me. Pray for us that we live to see tomorrow for another pull

Well Kayden is curled up on the bed and I'm enjoying a nice cold beer. I was planning on trying to find a pub that someone suggested for a beer and a burger but honestly I'm a little hesitent to leave Kayden in the car. Kind of shady around here

Wow,that sounds like awful conditions to me,sorry to hear that...You should've come to PA past weekend,Missy always have good pulls. I know the CT pull on the Thanksgiving weekend will be at a great location!

Ellie----------------------------------------"Winners aren't born...they're made.And they're made just like anything else...through hard work.That's the price we'll have to pay to achive that goal."